Chapter Sixteen: The Unwelcome Guest

  "Good words!" Outside the gate of Ishikawa, many outer disciples gathered to watch the excitement and cheered together. These outer disciples were indeed of poor quality, but they were all people with spiritual roots. They came to this sect and were treated as servants, it was strange if they didn't have any resentment in their hearts. Hearing Ishikawa's words, they immediately brought out the grievances and complaints that had been buried in their hearts.

  The surnamed Hua cultivator and Huang Shu Lang's faces changed slightly, this surnamed Hua cultivator seemed to have never experienced such an array, for a moment he was somewhat flustered.

  "What are you doing? What are you doing? This is the personal disciple of Elder Sun, are you going to rebel or something?" Huang Shu Lang was afraid that this group of people would swarm up and attack him. Even if he was at the fourth layer of Qi Refining, he couldn't withstand the punches and kicks of dozens of people.

  "Stay away from Qingchuan from now on." The Hu surname cultivator viciously threw down a sentence, squeezing out of the crowd.

  "Harukawa?" The image of that cute little girl floated in Ishikawa's mind. It had been a year since he last saw Harukawa, and Ishikawa didn't know what she looked like now either.

  It's not that Ishikawa didn't want to see him, it's just that the two were an inner and outer disciple respectively, so they basically had no chance of meeting. Moreover, Ishikawa also didn't want to implicate Harukawa because of his own reasons.

  However, Qingchuan was taken as an apprentice by a certain elder and was much stronger than Ishikawa in this outer sect. As for the relationship between Huaxing cultivator and Qingchuan, Ishikawa didn't bother to care about it.

  "It's all right, everyone has dispersed!" Ishikawa waved his hand and chased the crowd away, preparing to continue practicing Tu Na Tiao Xi.

  Ishikawa's calm and composed demeanor resonated with many people, and when they looked at Ishikawa again, their gaze was no longer the same as before.

  "Excuse me, is Ishikawa here?" a clear female voice came over.

  In the Refining Workshop, there were very few female disciples. The few that existed were sturdy and strong, exemplifying the phrase "tiger's back and bear's waist". Such a soft and delicate voice naturally attracted the attention of many people.

  "Seikawa! It's really you!" Ishikawa exclaimed in surprise. Ishikawa almost didn't recognize this Seikawa, who was dressed in a white dress and looked like an angel. This year, Seikawa had changed greatly, not only becoming more mature and elegant, but also advancing her cultivation to the second layer of the Qi Refining stage.

  "Stone Brother" Qingchuan almost flew over.

  "Come on in and take a seat." As an executive, Ishikawa had the privilege of having his room connected to the storage room for discarded items, which was quite spacious.

  "What's wrong with Ishikawa today, so many inner disciples have come to find him."

  "This senior named Haruka is really beautiful, and it seems like she has a special relationship with Ishikawa."

  "Hmm, so beautiful! I'll wait here for Qingchuan to come out, and take another look."

  "You silly fool, you'll be getting a scolding again soon"

  ………

  Ishikawa and Kazuki ignored others' gossip, closed the door, looked at each other for a long time, but didn't say a word.

  In Shijiazhuang, the two people almost met every day and talked about everything. Suddenly, they didn't see each other for a year. This time when they meet again, both of them have endless things to tell each other, but now they are tongue-tied and don't know where to start.

  "Hoo-ha!" The two of them suddenly burst out laughing at the same time.

  "Stone Brother, you won't have forgotten me, will you?" Qingchuan said with a scowl.

  "What's the point?" Ishikawa said with a half-joking tone, "Now that I've seen you grow up into a big girl, I can finally rest assured. I was always thinking of you, but you didn't think of me and didn't even come to see me."

  "I've always wanted to come see you." Qingchuan's eyes were slightly red: "But Master didn't allow it, this time I begged Master many times, and also had Elder Sun help speak for me, she finally agreed."

  "Old Sun, doesn't he have a direct disciple with the surname Hua?" Shi Chuan suddenly thought of the Hua-surnamed cultivator who had just passed by in the morning.

  "Are you talking about Master Hua Xiong? Do you know him?" Qingchuan asked in surprise.

  "I've heard of it." Ishikawa said calmly, seemingly understanding what Hua Xiong meant.

  "This Huashi brother often sends me things, but I don't want anything. And there's Huang Shulang, the Huang brother who introduced us, these two are together every day, whispering to each other."

  Haruka stopped talking suddenly and looked at Ishikawa who was listening with great interest, her face changing slightly.

  "Why don't you say anything?" Ishikawa was delighted that Harukawa hadn't changed, still the silly little girl who told him everything.

  "Sorry, Shi Tou Ge, I shouldn't have said that. You're now outside the sect and can't cultivate your skills. This time, Master agreed to let me come only because Elder Yan spoke up for you, saying you were a waste." As she spoke, Qing Chuan's eyes reddened slightly.

  "It's nothing, it's nothing." Ishikawa smiled helplessly and shook his head. It turned out that this little girl was afraid of hurting herself by saying so much. In fact, she had no idea that Ishikawa had reached the fifth layer of Qi Refining in just one year, and there was no one else in the entire Water Spirit Sect who could cultivate as quickly as him.

  Of course, Ishikawa felt no need to tell Harukawa about this matter. Knowing too many things would be of no benefit to Harukawa.

  However, Ishikawa gained an important piece of information from this, which is that the high-ranking elders of Mizu no Mon have thoroughly regarded Ishikawa as a useless person. This means that Ishikawa's future life will be very stable and safe.

  Without the disturbance of these people, Ishikawa can make full use of the elixir and spiritual stone to cultivate himself. In his free time, he can refine a few artifacts, and life is also quite comfortable.

  Qing Chuan took out a folded handkerchief from his close-fitting shirt, carefully opened it, and took out a dan medicine. He handed it to Shi Chuan and said, "Shi Tou Ge, here's a dan medicine. Even if you can't cultivate, it will be good for your body."

  Ishikawa took one glance and saw that it was a Lingdan, a type of pill commonly used by Qi-training disciples. The medicinal effect provided by this pill wasn't high, so Ishikawa hadn't bought many this time. However, Harukawa treated it as a treasure and kept it close to her body, indicating that she didn't usually get many pills, and this one was specially prepared for Ishikawa.

  Ishikawa's eyes fell on the little girl holding half a mooncake, and his eyes grew hot as he took the Qingling Dan, swallowing the fragrant pill with a hint of Qingchuan body scent.

  This is Qingchuan's friendship, no matter what value it has, it has an invaluable value in Ishikawa's heart.

  Half an hour later, Ishikawa had a general understanding of Harukawa's situation. As the direct disciple of Sei Chōrō, Harukawa was much stronger than ordinary inner disciples, and with his innate four water spiritual roots, he was able to reach the second layer of the Qi Refining stage in just one year.

  "Seigawa, don't worry about it, I'm doing all right here too. Now we've even made it to the executive level. Nowadays, we don't have to work at all, every day is carefree." Ishikawa said with feigned nonchalance.

  Until noon, Qingchuan reluctantly left, this was already the longest vacation she could get, Yan Changlao had very strict requirements for Qingchuan, and every day's practice time was very tight.

  Qing Chuan had just left, and a group of people rushed into Ishikawa's room with great eagerness.

  "Shi Shixiong! Who is that beautiful sister?"

  "Xiao Si, your saliva is all over my clothes!"

  ………

  Ishikawa had finally coaxed the group out, after a morning of fussing about. Ishikawa savored every word of Harukawa's, a warm smile spreading across his face.

  This time, Qingchuan brought an important piece of information to Shi Chuan, that is, the ancient ruins, where it is said that there are many treasures left by the ancestors of the ancient times, such as various elixirs and artifacts.

  Every three years, several major sects will join forces to open the teleportation array of the ancient ruins, allowing the inner disciples of each sect to enter and search for the treasures left behind by the ancient cultivators.

  This is also one of the exclusive rights of inner disciples.

  It's impossible that ancient ruins have no appeal to Ishikawa, but becoming an inner disciple is fundamentally impossible for him.

  Ishikawa couldn't help but stop thinking about these things anymore.

  At this time, Ishikawa's spiritual power had also recovered more or less, and the fatigue also disappeared with Harukawa's arrival.

  Ishikawa remembered that he hadn't checked the two storage bags he received last night yet.

  He casually took out one, and the things inside were indeed disappointing to Ishikawa. Apart from a few pieces of Buddhist instruments that Ishikawa looked down on, there were only dozens of spirit stones and ordinary elixirs.

  Ishikawa shook his head, never expecting there to be a poorer cultivator than him.

  He took out the second storage bag, and Ishikawa didn't have much hope at first, but when he infused his spiritual sense into it, he was almost stunned. This storage bag contained over a thousand spirit stones, and although there weren't many elixirs, they were enough for Ishikawa to use for a month. The messy array of talismans and artifacts was also considerable.

  This storage bag should belong to that Qi Refining Fifth Layer cultivator. Ishikawa let out a silent breath, if he hadn't used his strategy to cut off one of his hands first, it would have been very difficult for Ishikawa to escape from the few of them.

  These characters alone were enough to make Ishikawa unstoppable.

  And at that time, Ishikawa cut off his palm, and he didn't give him a chance to breathe, so he killed him so easily, otherwise the consequences would be unthinkable.

  Ishikawa thought that with his protective armor and childbearing needle, he could handle any situation, but yesterday's bloody battle made Ishikawa deeply realize that his strength was still not enough.

  Seal, Ling Shi Dan medicine were collected separately. Ishikawa took a look at those few artifacts and didn't find anything special. There were a few that were indeed stronger than Ishikawa's Xuantie Sword and Zimu Shu, but Ishikawa still threw these artifacts into the Tumu Stone to turn them into cultivation materials. Otherwise, if they were discovered by the deceased cultivator's seniors, Ishikawa would be in big trouble.

  In the storage bag of this fifth-layer Qi Refining cultivator, there was also a delicate small box that caught Ishikawa's attention. Inside the small box was a thumb-sized bead, pure white and flawless, but Ishikawa couldn't sense any spiritual energy from it.

  It was obvious that this bead was definitely not an ordinary product, but what made Ishikawa strange was why there was no spiritual fluctuation on this bead at all?

  Ishikawa concentrated a thread of spiritual energy and slowly injected it into the bead, wanting to probe its texture. Unexpectedly, this spiritual energy was like a mud cow entering the sea, and was instantly absorbed by the bead, leaving nothing behind.

  Ishikawa looked at the bead in surprise, and once again gathered a thread of spiritual energy, which was quickly swallowed up by the bead.

  …………

  Half a time later, Ishikawa stared at the bead with his eyes wide open, his face full of inexplicability. Ishikawa had already poured all his spiritual power into it, but the bead was like a bottomless pit, as long as there was spiritual power, it would swallow it endlessly.

  However, a faint cloud pattern appeared on this bead. Ishikawa secretly suspected that this might be related to the spiritual power he had infused. Perhaps when the spiritual power reached a certain amount, it would cause the bead to change.